For those about to rock...

I'm a gamer; and I love my Xbox 360. It is more than just a passive hobby. It is a passion, a labour of love. I love playing games...I love reading about games...I love watching people play games. One of my favorites is a relatively new genre to the arena - the rhythm game. The most widely known of these are the Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. Until this past October, it was relatively easy to know which of the competing juggernauts to suggest to people - if you tended to play by yourself (oh, quit your infantile giggling), you wanted Guitar Hero; if you wanted a more social experience by adding your friends to your Rock God(dess) fantasy, then you definitely chose Rock Band. But with the advent of Guitar Hero: World Tour, the field of battle have been evened...in general terms. For those who are scratching their heads wondering what I am talking about, I'm going to talk to you as I would to a clueless parent who knew only that their child wanted the "game with the plastic guitar."

Rock Band is a game where you can play with 3 other people as a virtual band - one is the singer, one is the drummer, and the remaining two play guitar and bass. In the days of old, Guitar Hero let you play as a guitarist; now, however, Guitar Hero: World Tour lets you play with a band just like Rock Band. If you know anything about the Internet, you are aware that it essentially is the world's largest soapbox. So the RB and GH:WT forums are ablaze, each proclaiming that their respective love is better than the other. So I got to thinking...as one who has experience with both franchises, is one better than the other? For the common person who thinks that an Xbox 360 might be some fancy skateboarding maneuver, what's the freakin' difference?

I haven't gotten to play GH:WT yet. But just from looking at the list of features (remember, I like to read about games), each game offers different draws. So I wondered, as many of my gamer geek compatriots have spoken aloud about, wouldn't it be great if a game existed that took the best of both games and put them into one?!? I started thinking - if I had the opportunity to create such a game, what would I put in it? This post is the introduction to that answer. I hope to explain what I think are the best features to include in this imaginary mutt of potential gaming greatness.